Mindset Coaching

This was supposed to be a video but the camera kept screwing up so I decided to come home and eat instead. Then I posted it as a facebook post... but facebook did that fun little thing where it detects that you put a lot of thought into something and therefore refuses to show it to any of your followers. Thanks for that.

This is important stuff though! Too important to go to waste... so I'm moving it over here to blogspot for prosperity.

Now though; mindset.

Mindset is important, but a lot of people talk about it as if it is ALL that matters. "If you just have the right mindset and be positive and love your self" blah blah blah. Sadly, nope.

If you want to be successful at ANY goal in life, it comes down to consistently taking the appropriate action. Not just "take action" either, that's another thing, that is. Consistently taking The Appropriate Action.

That might be described as working to an intelligent strategy, periodically assessing your progress, and then revising the strategy as seems best indicated.

MINDSET is a great influencer in how likely you are to adopt that correct course of action, vs some other course of action or inaction instead.

So IMO you can "believe in yourself" all you like and that's great, but if you're not also working consistently to an appropriate strategy, that belief is likely to dry up as you fail to see any progress.

On the other hand though... not believing in yourself or in your potential for success is likely to be a self fulfilling prophecy as you resign yourself to some other course of action (or inaction) other than the one someone would take if they declared to the world, "this is what I want, I believe in myself and I know I can be successful, and here's how I'm about to make it all happen, just you watch".

That's how you want to be thinking. Although even if you WEREN'T so upbeat and optimistic, but you did it that way anyway, you'd get where you're trying to go.

So, mindset matters. But here's what else...

If you really, REALLY insist upon success... it's not enough to want, hope, or even intend to be successful. You need to make a decision, and decide that you will ensure success.

In our training related goals we do this by having a plan. Not merely the intention to make it to all of our training sessions, but a schedule we have decided upon at which time training IS gong to happen. Not merely the intention to log our meals at the end of the day and see if we were within range of our fueling requirements, but a plan based on choices we have decided upon in advance in serving sizes that we KNOW will bring us to the right balance over the course of the day.

Not just knowing what needs to be done, but actually have a plan and a schedule we will work to, that ensures that was needs to be done does in fact get done. Anything else... hoping for the best, seeing how things turn out... that's all still leaving a lack of success as an acceptable option.

At least in the early in stages until it becomes second nature, you must DECIDE to be successful and then set up a plan in advance that ensures success.

What's next?

If you have decided that your training & condition related goals are important to you, and that success is the only outcome that you can accept... now's the time to drop your email address into the box at the top right of the page, to gain access to a whole stack of free resources and learn how to join my Flexible Fueling Online program where we'll work together on a custom strategy.

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Then and now...

I was just thinking of a couple of things. Back when I started doing this, it was because people asked me to. The online coaching stuff, I mean. It wasn't something many people were doing as far as I'm aware, but I do vaguely recall people speculating that it would become big in the near future, as it is has done.

Anyway. I started doing it because a few people wrote to me from around the world, saying "I love your blog, I wish I lived close enough to come and train with you..." and we'd get talking and I'd give them a program and some macro targets. After the first handful got excellent results, word got out, more people wanted programs, and fast forward to now and a whole unique system has evolved.

The eating disorder awareness and relapse avoidance stuff that I do, that's another thing. I started doing that because people asked me, too. "You have helped me so much, you need to let other people now that they can come to you for help so that they don't end up with someone else who is going to mess them up"... that sort of thing. I wasn't sure about the ethics of it, you know?

So that's the other thing. When I started doing this, not many people were doing an IIFYM or Flexible Dieting approach. In fact I don't even think the phrase "Flexible Dieting" had been coined yet. In the groups I was in at least, it was all "clean eating", "paleo" and in particular it was "elimination diet".

This was highly, HIGHLY problematic.

An elimination diet is highly restrictive, with any grain based or processed foods, any legumes, fruit & dairy "eliminated". Now while there may be medical grounds for such a diet in some cases, for a PT to believe EVERY client who comes to train needs to be on such a diet is highly problematic, especially based on the assumption that they ALL have conditions such as "leaky gut" and "adrenal fatigue" which (a) have no basis in science, and (b) if they did exist would constitute medical conditions to be diagnosed and managed by a medical professional and not by a fitness professional.

Clearly, right?

The additional issue with such approaches is that clients literally are taught to fear foods of different types, are taught to ascribe moral value to foods of different types, and are taught that failure to see progress / lose weight is due to any specific individual instance of moral failure where they have partaken in "unclean" eating.

For example... not losing any weight this month might be put down to having cereal, or toast, or a slice of birthday cake two Tuesdays before last. Which is beyond preposterous and beyond problematic, especially if you consider what drastic action a desperate and vulnerable client might take to rectify a situation where they are feeling guilty about having just eaten something they "shouldn't have", and believing that it will render all of their other efforts in training and adhering to the rules of the diet void, and meaning another week or month or however long without making progress towards their weight loss goal.

It was ALWAYS a "weight loss goal", as well.
That's something else that has changed, this time for the better.

Now... how an elimination diet or similarly restrictive diet might result in weight loss is quite simply because people have less options to choose from and in particular less energy dense options, so they tended to result in a much lower total energy intake and a higher percentage of that intake being from protein. Eventually more people were able to understand, any weight loss was due to the reduction of energy intake, rather than because any specific food or subset of foods was causing weight gain / precluding weight loss outside of the context of excessive total calories. This is a vast improvement in terms of being a more evidence based approach and one that less resembles orthorexia nervosa, however the issue you have now is that a poor understanding of this theory of energy balance means that it is interpreted in overly simplistic terms of "if they are losing weight they are in calorie deficit, if they are not losing weight they are in calorie surplus", which is more often than not applied in terms of continuously and recklessly slashing intake targets, adding more and more high intensity exercise sessions to maximise energy expenditure (aka "burn calories"), and perhaps even to introduce fasting when this fails to result in fat loss.

Whereas previously the blame for a failure to see fat loss would have been any isolated instance of failing to "eat clean", currently the blame will be on any isolated instance of failing to restrict to the prescribed calorie limit &/or to adhere to a precise macronutrient split. So... as an aspiring trainer who is networking with people in the industry, you will frequently see social media posts talking about how online coaching is a great way to supplement your income without taking on more clients locally, with free webinars or paid mentorships to teach you how to write the right blog entries and social media posts and email subscription content to get people to sign up and pay the money for your new online lifestyle coaching service.

And that's fine... we all want to make money, and if you can make money from helping other people get happier and healthier and to make progress towards their fitness goals, all the better.

For the consumers out there though and especially ones who may have been unsuccessful and had a bad experience with online coaching, especially of the "you must still be eating too much" variety... you have to consider: they may have a professional web presence and be good at marketing, they may have been taught how to say all the right things, tug on the heartstrings &/or manipulate people into wanting to be accepted and belong to their "tribe"... but are they actually any good? Do they actually have a good understanding of how training works, how sports nutrition & fueling works, and do they actually have any experience at coaching people?

That's what I'd want to know.

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What's with the "What's With Wheat" movie?

I was planning on doing a masterpost about grains and gluten for a while now.
Since there's a new movie on the subject about to launch, I figured I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't get this together about now.

This movie "What's With Wheat" you may have heard of appears to have been inspired by the financial success of a similar fearmongering misinformation piece known as "That Sugar Film" and there appears to be some cross-promotion between the makers of that film and this one. The "experts" and funders of the movie are a veritable who's who of woo, featuring all manner of pseudoscience based health & diet authors in particular.

Not having or intending to watch this fictional piece I cannot offer a review myself but I will add links to reviews as they become available. As to the claims the film makes, I understand that they range from the "gluten is bad" to the "it's not the gluten it's the chemicals they spray on the crops" to the "the wheat is GMO which makes it bad" sort of nonsense that has been claimed and debunked repeatedly for at least as long as I've been in the fitness business.

Here's an entry from a blogger who was offered a cut to promote the film, but declined on ethical grounds: Nurse Loves Farmer - No, I Will Not Promote Your Anti-Wheat Documentary.

It's always ironic to me that these "alternative" health marketers constantly claim that we can't trust the scientists and the qualified health professionals as they have financial incentives to promote certain information... while they themselves run affiliate programs offering financial incentives to promote their own, non-evidence based misinformation. As a side note, remember that time they tried to pay ME off to promote lchf and paleo pseudoscience? I sure haven't forgotten it.

The following links alone will debunk many of the disingenuous claims of this marketing piece masquarading as a documentary:

• Wheat Has Not Changed.
• Wheat In The World.

In the next section you'll find links regarding the benefits of keeping cereal grains in your diet unless you have an actually diagnosed medical reason to avoid them.

As I've attempted to explain for years now... active people have a certain ENERGY requirement as well as other nutritional requirements to meet. They will best meet those requirements through a more inclusive diet, rather than a more restrictive one.

The Master Post On The Benefits Of Keeping Whole Grains In Your Diet Starts Here:

Latest Update: January 2019

• Blow to low carb diet as landmark study finds high fibre cuts heart disease risk.
• The lifesaving food 90% aren’t eating enough of. 
• Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

 

Whole grain consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all cause and cause specific mortality: systematic review.

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2716?etoc

What is already known on this topic

• A high intake of whole grains has been associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain
• Recommendations for whole grain intake have often been unclear or inconsistent with regard to the amount and types of whole grain foods that should be consumed to reduce chronic disease and risk of mortality

What this study adds

• A high intake of whole grains was associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and all cause mortality, as well as mortality from respiratory disease, infectious disease, diabetes, and all non-cardiovascular, non-cancer causes
• Reductions in risk were observed up to an intake of 210-225 g/day (seven to seven and a half servings/day) and for whole grain bread, whole grain breakfast cereals, and added bran
• The results strongly support dietary recommendations to increase intake of whole grain foods in the general population to reduce risk of chronic diseases and premature mortality

Consumption of whole grains and cereal fiber and total and cause-specific mortality.

http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0294-7

• Consumption of whole grains were inversely associated with risk of all-cause mortality and death from cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, respiratory disease, infections, and other causes.
• Our data suggest cereal fiber is one potentially protective component.

See also: http://www.livescience.com/50231-whole-grain-cereal-fiber-early-death.html

 Gluten free diet and nutrient deficiencies: A review.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27211234

• GF-diet was found to be poor in alimentary fiber due in particular to the necessary avoidance of several kinds of foods naturally rich in fiber.
• Micronutrients are also found to be poor, in particular Vit. D, Vit. B12 and folate, in addition to some minerals such as iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium.
• Moreover, an inadequate macronutrient intake was reported related above all to the focus on the avoidance of gluten.

Association Between Carbohydrate Nutrition and Successful Aging Over 10 Years

https://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/23/gerona.glw091.full 

• Consumption of dietary fiber from breads/cereals and fruits independently influenced the likelihood of aging successfully over 10 years. These findings suggest that increasing intake of fiber-rich foods could be a successful strategy in reaching old age disease free and fully functional.

 

Whole-grain wheat consumption reduces inflammation in a randomized controlled trial.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2014/12/03/ajcn.114.088120.abstract

• Whole-grain wheat consumption reduces inflammation in a randomized controlled trial on overweight and obese subjects with unhealthy dietary and lifestyle behaviors.

No Effects of Gluten in Patients With Self-Reported Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085%2813%2900702-6/abstract

And a couple more I've shared already in an earlier entry, in case you missed it then:

• Myths Busted: The Whole Grains Council.
• Intake of whole grains is associated with lower risk of myocardial infarction. 

And here's a link to the Australian 2016 Grains For Health Report.

But what about Adrenal Fatigue though?

I'm glad you asked. For good measure here are some links discussing this condition, which is frequently invoked by fearmongers to convince you to adopt whatever form of restrictive diet they are selling.

Does such a condition even exist though? Spoiler: in the context they describe, nope.

• Fatigued by a Fake Disease.
• Adrenal Fatigue: Myth vs Reality.
• Adrenal Fatigue: A Fraud Perpetrated On Unsuspecting Patients.
• And while we're at it: Debunking The Myth Of Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Bottom line: there's money to be made in fearmongering, but there's a lot of harm to be done in promoting restrictive dieting via fear aka orthorexia. There are many benefits to including whole grains in a healthy & balanced diet.

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